bouts of good and bad, but generally more good

I went back to work on Monday and it was a little overwhelming at first, since I had to combat jet lag which hit me really hard in the morning, and then the rolling bouts of nausea, followed by the random headaches and lastly the quiet throbbing pain. I managed to get through the day and went to Dr C's clinic at 6:30pm - she said I looked great and there was no need for a scan.

I gave her an update of how many eggs T has - the ARGC actually retrieved 19 eggs from me but only 15 were mature. Out of that, 11 fertilized. Dr C was happy for T and me. I gave her a quarter of a rind of Fortnum & Mason's award-winning Stilton cheese to thank her for her help, and left with a promise for dinner in January.

Tuesday and Wednesday went by fairly quickly and as the jet lag got more manageable, so did the nausea. It's early Friday morning now and I hardly have any nausea left, although on Wednesday night I was pretty miserable and had to take paracetamol to quell the pain. I hope by this weekend I'll be back to 100% so I can start hiking and running again. Gosh, I sure miss my running sessions, pounding on the asphalt with nothing but myself and my thoughts and my heart beating so fast.

==

T's embryo transfer happened on Wednesday. They had 4 beautiful blastocysts but of course the ARGC could only put 2 inside her. The other eggs are still developing and of course will be frozen for later use. The transfer went well and now all she has to do is to rest. I have been sending good thoughts to her and telling the embryos to STICK to her womb, although I am a skeptic of Reiki. Still, there's no harm with all that positive energy, so why not?

There is one scene in the anime movie "My Neighbour Totoro" where the kids and Totoro do a dance at the garden for the seedlings to grow faster - I wish there is an equivalent dance for me to perform for the embryo to grow!

Getting there

It was still a sleepless night but at least it's getting better. There were moments when I could actually lie down flat and it was such a joy to sleep properly instead of being propped up with 5 pillows. The burning cramps started at 5am and reached a peak at 8:30am till I gulped some Gaviscon. It's Gaviscon to the rescue again!

M feels really bad that I am suffering and has told Dr C to "take good care" of me. Other than giving me a call everyday, I doubt Dr C can do much more. She has already given me the best treatment with Nexium and by offering to treat me when my GP wouldn't, it's more than I can ask for. It now up to me how badly I want myself to recover. Well, just thinking about doing the giant stride into the big blue and saying hello to the barracudas is enough!

Still can't manage to get a clear scan of the ultrasound of the ovaries. I have to work something out with my G10.

Ah, the good news - M was told that out of the 55 eggs retrieved, there are 32 embryos frozen. Out of that, 19 of them are "Day 2" embryos and 13 are "Day 5" embryos which is essentially the blastocyst. It is defined as "an embryo that has developed for five to seven days after fertilization and has developed 2 distinct cell types and a central cavity filled with fluid (blastocoel cavity). The cells in a blastocyst have just started to differentiate. The surface cells that surround the cavity (just under the outer shell) are called the trophectoderm and will later develop into the placenta. The more centrally located group of cells are called the inner cell mass and will become the fetus". (Source: Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago)

In English, it just means that with 13 blastocyst, M has a damn high chance of getting pregnant! There's quite nothing like some good news at the end of the long dark tunnel.

It's going to be a busy day today with a pedicure, sending the beagle off to his holiday resort and going to the dive shop to sort out my Ikelite housing and strobe.